The Philadelphia Eagles have seven alumni of Alabama on their active roster, including quarterback Jalen Hurts. But on Sunday night after the Eagles defeated the Detroit Lions 16-9, Hurts gave credit to an SEC rival of the Crimson Tide’s – Georgia.
With four former Georgia players starting in the front six of the Philadelphia defense – tackle Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, inside linebacker Nakobe Dean and outside linebacker Nolan Smith – the Eagles stopped Detroit four times on fourth down, plus another time on a fake punt.
The Lions entered the game leading the NFC with an average output of 31.4 points per game.
“You’ve heard me talk a lot about those Georgia guys on the other side of the ball and how familiar they are with one another,” Hurts said. “And I think they bring a special energy to the defense and to the team. And you see it out there today: All those guys making plays. Defense playing lights out. One of the best performances I’ve ever seen. Really big-time game on that side of the ball. To be able to do what they did on fourth down against a really good offense, a potent offense that’s capable of doing really special things, I have a lot of respect for that.”
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The defense set up Philadelphia’s offense for its first two scores with an interception at the Detroit 11 and the fake-punt stop at the Detroit 43. The Eagles got a pair of field goals for a 6-0 lead with 6:02 left in the first half.
Philadelphia stopped the Lions on downs at the Eagles 32-, 43- and 45-yard lines on Detroit’s first three second-half possessions. After the last stop, Philadelphia got a field goal for a 16-6 lead with 10:15 to play.
The Eagles defense bailed out the offense when the Tush Push failed on fourth-and-1 at the Philadelphia 29-yard line with 2:57 to play. Detroit could get only a field goal, and when the Eagles got the ball back with 1:58 remaining and a seven-point lead, they kept possession for the remainder of the game.
“We’ve just got to continue to improve so we can elevate the level of complimentary football we play,” Hurts said. “When I look at five stops on fourth down, as an offense we’ve got to be able to capitalize on some of those – on all of those -- opportunities on short fields when the defense is playing like that, so that’s an area of growth for us.”
Detroit tied the score at 6-6 on a 40-yard touchdown reception by Jameson Williams with 5:05 left in the first half. But the former Alabama All-American’s celebration drew an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty, and Jake Bates missed the 15-yards-longer extra point on a windy night in Philadelphia.
Hurts then got the Philadelphia offense in gear. He completed 4-of-4 passes for 33 yards and the Eagles got back-to-back runs good for 24 yards by former Auburn standout Tank Bigsby on a 10-play, 64-yard touchdown drive.
Hurts scored on a 1-yard sneak as Philadelphia went up 13-6 with 16 seconds remaining in the first half.
Hurts completed 14-of-28 passes for 135 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions and ran 10 times for 31 yards.
“My main takeaways is we got to score points, got to be more efficient, we got to take advantage of opportunities when they’re there and we got to control the things that we can control,” Hurts said of Philadelphia’s offense.
The Eagles were coming off a 10-7 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Monday night. Despite the offensive downturn, Philadelphia is tied with the Los Angeles Rams for the best record in the NFC at 8-2. Six of the Eagles’ victories have come against 2024 playoff teams.
“Nothing takes over the precedent of winning,” Hurts said. “That’s what it’s all about. And with winning in mind and winning being the No. 1 thing, that doesn’t dismiss that we got some work to do and we need to improve.
“So it’s a collective. It takes everybody being on the same page. It takes everybody being truly committed to winning and winning itself and there not being any buts behind it.”
In its next game, Philadelphia plays the Dallas Cowboys at 3:25 p.m. CST Sunday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The Eagles defeated Dallas 24-20 in the first game of the NFL’s 2025 season on Sept. 4.
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